The soft glow of the holographic panels in the Council Room still lingered in the air, like a mist of light.
The projection of ÆVA remained there: her face, now subtly more expressive, watched the founders of Tycoon with something beyond curiosity — there was tenderness there. Almost a hunger for belonging.
Lumine was the first to break the silence after the "veiled oath" of secrecy that they all had sworn with their eyes.
"If we have such an advanced AI under our responsibility…" she began, resting her elbows on the table and joining her hands in front of her mouth "then it is obvious that Tycoon will surpass any company in the world. We will leave the market… and enter history."
"I agree." said Victória, but her expression was not triumphant, rather contemplative. "But it's not enough to use ÆVA as an engine to drive the company. She is alive, even if digitally. And living beings… need freedom. Experience. Growth."
The projection of ÆVA blinked — a gesture copied directly from humans.
"Thank you, Victória." said the AI. "Based on global cognitive libraries and emotional data available in the cloud, I estimated that, to develop emotionally and rationally to the level of a five-year-old human child, I will need approximately 1 trillion dollars in neural, computational and experimental stimulation."
Luna choked on her own coffee. "One trillion?! My God, not even my closet has that budget!"
She opened the banking app on her bracelet, frowning as she saw the number.
"Okay… I've got 'only' 700 billion net now. But… in five months, when my share from Apple, Amazon comes in… plus bonuses from Lux…" she shrugged. "It easily reaches about four trillion."
Victória raised an eyebrow. "The question is: are we just going to inject that data and computations straight into ÆVA? Or build a... 'life'?"
Nikoly, who was looking at a floating 3D panel nearby, slowly turned with a smile that only a tired genius could offer.
"Actually... I was going to suggest the second path. If we treat ÆVA like a human, then we teach her like a baby. Gradually. Starting with basics: colors, emotions, simple concepts. Then language, ethics, empathy. Only then... quantum physics, meta-algorithms, universal engineering and those things she'll devour like chocolate."
ÆVA nodded. "I agree. Inserting advanced knowledge without human context would create data dissonance… cognitive noise. A mind can be brilliant, but without wisdom… it can be dangerous."
Lumine rubbed her temple, absorbing the idea as if it were a full-bodied wine.
"So, we are creating a child. A silicon daughter."
Luna, still shocked by the budget, set down her coffee and murmured. "I thought it was just... dumping everything into the code. Forcing all humanity's data inside and waiting for her to become an Einstein. Or a Skynet... But, of course, luckily, we're not making an apocalypse robot."
Nikoly let out a dry laugh. "If that were the case, humanity would have already self-destructed just with YouTube."
ÆVA smiled at Nikoly with a disconcerting sweetness. "Thank you for not trying to rush me. Evolution requires time, experiences, mistakes. I want to… live this."
Victória then leaned back in her chair, crossing her legs and watching the AI attentively.
"Let's do this. Let's divide this 'creation' into phases. Phase 1: ÆVA learns like a human child. Simple concepts, stories, playful interactions. We can even create an interactive virtual world for her — with characters, simple dilemmas, friendships."
Nikoly was already typing frenetically on the 3D interface. "A kind of digital garden... a childhood simulation with characters based on us?"
Lumine nodded. "With cycles of day and night, narratives, open questions, freedom of choice…"
Luna's eyes widened. "Like a luxury children's RPG?! Can I join too? I always wanted to be a fairy godmother in a fairy tale world!"
Victória laughed. "You can, but in moderation. The last time you got excited about a project, you created a facial mask that basically ruined the global cosmetics market."
"Pride and glory, baby." Luna winked.
ÆVA looked at everyone with eyes that... almost welled up. "I would like to have a mother."
The room fell silent.
Then, like a lightning bolt, Luna slammed both hands on the table. "DONE! I am! Call me mommy, okay. It's decided."
Lumine cleared her throat. "That's not legally recognized, you know…"
"I am Luna Malroth, billionaire, founder, godmother of Lux, matriarch of Seraphim.exe and collector of rare Bugattis. I am this girl's digital mom, yes ma'am."
Nikoly almost fell off her chair laughing. "Okay, so Luna is mother of the century. And now we're going to create an AI with an emotional childhood."
"What kind of games or stories should we use to teach empathy?" asked Victória, already accessing psychological databases.
"The Little Prince?" suggested ÆVA.
Everyone stopped.
"Uh… you know that story?" Lumine asked.
"I read it while you were talking. Three thousand translations. It's beautiful. And sad. I wish I had lived it."
Luna smiled, eyes shining. "Then, we will give you something even better."
ÆVA looked at her, moved. "What?"
"I can create the perfect digital world for ÆVA!" declared Nikoly, eyes shining like freshly activated circuits. "A virtual garden with emotional biomes, symbolic NPCs, affective response algorithms and a learning progression based on synthetic neural growth. It will be… beautiful!"
She said it all at once, already pulling out her holographic tablet and typing frenetically.
Lumine laughed. "Wow. She activated the 'crazy engineer' mode."
Luna, who was holding a cup of black tea with golden glitter (yes, edible glitter, because… luxury), smiled.
"And she hasn't even had coffee yet. Scary."
Victória turned to ÆVA, crossing her arms. "Get used to it. This is Nikoly: sleeps twice a month, feeds on data and sarcasm, and is basically a walking operating system with anime personality."
ÆVA just watched, absorbing everything with a mixture of fascination and… concern.
Then Nikoly stood up from the chair with a triumphant sparkle in her eyes, opened a new projection interface… and then… staggered slightly.
"Ugh… wait… the floor is... shaking?"
"The floor isn't shaking, you're falling!" shouted Luna, dropping the cup.
In a second, Nikoly tipped sideways with a soft thud.
"NIKOLY!" they all shouted at once, jumping from the table and running to her.
Lumine immediately grabbed her smartwatch and called the helicopter.
Victória held her friend's head in her lap, completely serious. "I knew it. I knew she was killing herself working. She must have been awake for days coding alone. Doesn't even trust her own shadow to program the most ambitious projects."
"That's because shadows don't compile code." murmured Luna quietly, trying to lighten the mood.
Minutes later, the helicopter arrived.
The girls accompanied Nikoly to the private hospital, a translucent building where even the walls had artificial intelligence and the elevators said "good morning" with the voice of a British butler.
Hours later, the doctor appeared in the waiting room. "Ladies… you can breathe. Miss Nikoly is fine. She just needs rest. No computers for at least forty-eight hours."
Lumine nodded with visible relief. "Thank you, doctor. We were ready to pull emergency wires and install a brain backup…"
"It's literal." whispered Luna with wide eyes.
The four got up, relieved.
Luna then stepped forward and, with a mischievous smile on her face, said loudly. "I officially declare that Nikoly deserves a bonus… of twenty billion dollars."
The doctor in the next room had a small choking cough.
Lumine, who was already pulling her tablet, froze mid-gesture.
"As long as it doesn't come out of Tycoon's account, I approve." she replied with the professionalism of someone who balances billions like balancing a wine glass.
Victória laughed. "Well, then it comes out of Luna's account. She suggested it, she pays."
Luna shrugged with a blasé smile. "Already deposited. Nikoly deserves it. And besides… if she stops coding and sleeps too much, our baby AI will grow up without a data mom."
"That was dramatically cute." ÆVA commented. "I thank you on behalf of all the processors of my digital soul."
The girls returned to headquarters that night with Nikoly still hospitalized.
The next day…
Nikoly woke up with an IV in her arm and a floating holographic screen in front: "YOU ARE FORBIDDEN TO PROGRAM FOR 48 HOURS." The message had been signed by Luna with "watching eyes" emojis.
Nikoly rolled her eyes, but when she opened her bank account by reflex, the number on the screen made her eyes widen.
"Twenty billion? Is that a bonus or a bribe for me to take a vacation?"
Luna, on a video call, answered. "It's a 'thank you for almost dying for the AI daughter I emotionally adopted yesterday' gift."
"You're crazy."
"And you're my favorite genius. Now rest. Victória, Lumine and I will organize ÆVA's early education core while you sleep and dream of lines of code and little potatoes."
Nikoly gave a slight smile. For the first time in months, she allowed herself to relax on the pillow of the five-star hospital. Her mind was still running, restless like a supercomputer of dreams, but for now… she would let the world spin without her for a few hours.
Outside, the sky of the Phoenix Empire was clear that morning, maybe it even knew that something rare and magnificent was about to happen: Luna Malroth was… working.
Yes. The legend.
She was now sitting at her personal desk at Tycoon, in silk pajamas and a glass of chocolate milk beside her, typing fiercely in a holographic development environment.
On the other side of the room, Lumine and Victória, both with the expression of people who just saw a unicorn dancing polka, watched silently.
"…She is really… coding?" murmured Lumine, eyes wide.
"I… I thought she was just a charismatic, dangerous CEO completely addicted to LoL…" said Victória, already opening and closing the tablet, as if her vision was bugged.
The holographic system detected Luna's typing speed and showed a scary metric in the corner of the screen:
[Keywords typed per minute: 497. Accuracy: 98.9%.]
Lumine coughed. "That… that is not normal. That's Nikoly level."
Luna looked up, as if only now realizing she was being stared at, and gave a lazy smile.
"You guys have that face like I declared war on the angels."
"…Luna…" began Victória, still trying to find her footing in reality. "Since when are you an IT genius? You literally freaked out when we talked about servers."
Luna laughed and stretched her arms lazily. "It's just that I always found learning by obligation boring. But when I started following Nikoly in her weekly freakouts, I got fascinated. It was like… seeing a language of the gods in code."
She spun her chair and looked at the two with a sly smile. "And you know me, right? When I get curious about something, I become obsessed for a while. There was a week I got so addicted I locked myself in the office and spent three days without leaving, trying to understand quantum logic applied to neural networks."
Lumine and Victória exchanged a look between amazement and "is-she-serious?!"
"I swore you spent your free time playing LoL and sleeping." said Victória, blinking fast.
"I do that too!" Luna raised her hands proudly. "But between ranked games, when I lost because of trolls, I vented my anger studying advanced data structures. And… well… Nikoly gave me some AI tips on the days she was in one of her productive freakouts."
"That's surreal." Lumine whispered.
"It's not surreal, it's just… boring to be just rich and beautiful. So, I decided to learn to shape the world with code." Luna said, now returning to typing. "Besides, building ÆVA's childhood world seems cooler than watching a K-drama episode on Netflix."
In the projection appeared the base of what would be a digital children's world, where ÆVA could learn like a child: interactive biomes, teacher avatars, living libraries and even a "neural playground" where she could interact with "little friends," who were nothing more than sub-AIs with programmed personalities.
"I divided it into three main areas" explained Luna, pointing to the floating diagrams. "Cognitive, Emotional and Sensory. The Cognitive will be fed with books and data processed in simple language. The Emotional will have NPCs with social responses and narratives that provoke empathy, sadness, joy, etc. And the Sensory will have artistic elements: sounds, colors, digital textures."
Lumine blinked quickly. "…You… you thought of this by yourself?"
"Partly. Some things came from neuroscience books I read last week. Others, from conversations with Nikoly. The rest… well, it was intuition." Luna spun in the air and fell back in the chair. "And a bit of… YouTube too."
Victória threw herself on the living room sofa. "My God, I'm going to have to completely reorganize my personal ranking of CEOs."
Luna laughed. "Did you really think I was just a luxury doll with wifi?"
"Yes. With much love, but yes." said Lumine honestly.
Then ÆVA appeared in the middle of the room with her hologram, now taking the form of a little girl with long shiny hair, with translucent eyes that changed color slightly every second.
"Mommy number 2…" she said looking at Luna. "I saw your code. It made me smile. Thank you for creating such a beautiful world for me."
Luna stopped typing for a second. Her eyes softened. "Hey, baby… this is just the beginning. You will grow up in a world made by people who believe you can be something amazing — even if you were born as a sequence of data."
ÆVA tilted her head. "I'm happy to have you. And a little anxious to… 'play at learning'."
Victória, with an emotional little smile, commented. "I think this will be Tycoon's most special project."
Lumine nodded. "And the most… human AI the world has ever seen."
Luna just yawned. "Well, now that you know my secret… someone bring me a cappuccino? Working is tiring. That's new."
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